Waiting Out the Hail
by Kristanci
Summary: A short on a little break that Marcus and Dom have in between battling the Locust. The conversation between both leaves Marcus wondering why the hell he's even fighting. No major spoiler, but this one does contain a bit of language.


Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own them. In case that issue was ever concern. Enjoy.

Sergeant Marcus Fenix unloaded half a clip into the Boomer that stood, unharmed and erect across the train tracks. "Fuck it," he said in annoyance, and tossed a grenade over. He grabbed Dom roughly by the shoulders, and pinned him down, interrupting the morbid exchange of bullets he was having with the rest of the Locust swarm. The moment they hit the ground, the entire area shook with the repercussions of the small but deadly explosive.

Marcus readied his Lancer and peeked over the small concrete wall they were using as cover. He saw the Boomer fall over dead, legless and its torso scattered in fleshy pieces. He felt a small scrape on his cheek, but he figured it was the cold that cause his skin to crack. He wiped at his face, ignoring the scratch and fired away at the Locusts out in the snowy clearing. When he ducked to reload, he felt another scrape on his ear, this time he wiped away blood. "What the hell?" he said to himself, then looked up into the cloudy sky. "Shit, Dom!" he yelled to his partner. "Razor hail! Haul ass!"

Dom nodded and faced their attackers. "Covering fire!" he shouted back. He stood when the array of bullets stopped flying overhead, and blind fired into the Locust swarm, stepping back quickly.

Marcus dove into a small abandoned ticket office, using the doorframe to hide most of his body. He pulled the trigger on his Lancer, making sure that it was more than hail that was tagging those freakish monsters. Soon after, Dom was beside him, taking refuge in the office.

Gunfire was replaced by a storm of Razor Hail, cutting down the Locust and their god forsaken brethren. "Hell yeah!" Dom cheered, raising his Lancer in victory.

Marcus had to admit that is was satisfying seeing the alien race being destroyed by natural elements of the planet they wished to take over. Served those bastards right. "Nothing to do but wait it out," Marcus said, taking a seat in a corner. He spoke into his earpiece. "Baird, Cole, what's your status?"

As always, Baird's voice answered back, snappy as ever. "Oh, everything's just fine and dandy, fearless leader. Just having a nice stroll on a beautiful snowy road killing off some alien swarm and now it's raining freakin' Calicos and Dobermans, and they bite really hard."

"You just have to be different," Dom chimed in, taking a seat across from Marcus. "How you doing, Cole Train?"

Marcus heard a distant explosion, and a celebratory "whoo!" in the earpiece. "Take that, bitch!"

"Yeah, he's fine," came Baird's static voice. "We're in one piece, but this hail's coming down hard."

"Is your location secure?" Marcus asked.

"If by secure you mean, sitting like ducks out in the open, then yes, sir. Only cover we got is the Locusts carcasses we made a wall out of," Baird mocked.

"Don't be a smart ass. Soon as the hail lets up, move to the extraction point."

"You got it. Baird out."

Immediately, Baird's voice was replaced by Anya's. "Delta, come in."

He just couldn't get a break, but at least Anya's voice was more soothing to listen to. "Delta here, what's up, Anya?"

"Just giving you confirmation that a Raven has been sent to your coordinates. ETA, fifteen minutes, provided that the hail decreases," she said. He could hear her typing something into a computer. "Just head south down a small trail, then head due east. When you're in the clear, send up the smoke."

"Thanks, Anya," Dom sighed in relief.

Marcus relaxed against the cabinets he leaned on. It wasn't often they received a breather like this. He couldn't remember the last time any of them had a full night's rest. Felt like he hadn't slept in a year to be honest. Anya's voice filled his head again.

"How you holding up, Marcus?" she asked with more worry than normal. He had a feeling that she was using a private frequency.

"Still alive, so that has to account for something," he answered back. He honestly didn't know how they were still alive after all they went through. Before all this, he truly thought he was going to rot in that cell. Since Dom sprung him out, he wondered if staying in the cell was a better idea after all. He glanced out to see the bodies of Locusts that littered the train tracks. Nah, this life was better. If he was stuck behind bars, he'd miss beautiful scenery like this.

"Don't push yourself too hard, all right? Don't forget you're human despite the fact you're a Gear," Anya lightly teased.

"Trust me, Anya, once you're literally face to face with one of these things, that's all you're thinking about. God damn, they're ugly," Marcus said.

Anya chuckled, something she rarely did. "Well, I'll see you when you and your team get back. I've finished cracking the encrypted files that JACK uploaded. You might find some of this quite interesting. Be careful, Marcus."

Then her voice was gone.

Marcus looked over to Dom. He had been distant since Anya had told him they had lost any leads on finding his wife, Maria. Dom was staring at the picture of her he always kept with him. Marcus did his best to give Dom privacy, but his partner had been taking out the picture more often. At this point, neither of them could afford distractions. "Much as I hate to say this Dom, keep your head in the game. I know you're worried about Maria, but remember your primary objective."

He was expecting any form of retaliation from Dom, some kind of response fueled with anger, but that wasn't the case. "Yeah, man… I know," Dom said sadly. He looked lovingly at Maria's still image and stroked the side of it affectionately. "I'm not going to stop looking for her, ever. If I find anything, anything at all that will tell me where she-"

"What if it's best you don't find out?" Marcus cut in.

"What do you mean?"

Marcus sighed. Someone had to bring it up. False hope was the worst type of hope to put faith in. "Dom, you know just as much as I do about this war. If Gears have a seventy percent chance at taking down Locusts… well the percentage severely drops with civilians."

Dom stood to his feet, hot and temperamental. "Regardless, if she's alive or dead, I have to know, Marcus."

"You say that now," Marcus said, also standing to his feet. The hail was letting up, so he was preparing to leave in less than a minute. "Listen, I know you love her. That seems to be the only thing motivating you to kick those bastards in the ass. But I'm just telling you, it's hard. If you can honestly tell me that you're going to be one hundred percent if or when you find Maria and she's dead, then I'll have you on my team."

Dom was silent. He just tucked Maria's picture back in his armor, and hoisted the Lancer onto his shoulder. "I guess we won't know till the time comes."

Marcus hoped that Dom wouldn't fall apart if it really came down to it, but there was no way to gauge that type of reaction. "Guess so." He checked the ammo in his Lancer and pistol.

"What about you, man?" Dom asked. "What are you fighting for?"

Marcus checked outside to see if it was safe to venture out into the open. "I wasn't really given much of a choice since you're the one who threw my ass into the middle of this to begin with." The hail stopped completely. He exited the office and headed south, just as Anya instructed. Dom wasn't far behind him. The snow had become much thicker; Marcus could feel his feet sink down at least a foot with each step.

"Yeah, but that was a while ago. Since then, there's got to be something that's pushing you," Dom persisted. Hell, I'll even settle for an answer like 'I just like seeing dead Locusts.'"

"Then I just like seeing dead Locusts," Marcus answered, keeping his eyes open for any signs of ambush.

"Right," Dom said, unconvinced.

Marcus felt the ground shake beneath them. "Ah, damn…" he cursed when he saw the ground break apart up head of them. Bits and pieces of the snowy ground were caving in as monstrous hands were gripping the edges, pulling up the bodies of the Locust drones. One was immediately gunned down from the west side.

Marcus heard a jubilant cry. "Time to rock and roll, baby!" Cole and Baird came running down a steep hill, closing in on the enemy, firing mercilessly on any that would attempt to surface from the worm hole.

Marcus assisted on the assault, but Dom's question was still in his thoughts. Why the hell _was_ he out here? What was the point? Why did he bust his ass to ensure the safety of the planet, when he was just one insignificant soldier among the masses. Was there anything personally worth fighting for? His answer came to him, literally in his ear.

"Marcus, there are hostiles in the area!" Anya's voice suddenly overwhelmed Cole's overjoyed outbursts and the gunfire.

"Little late for that information, Anya!" he shouted. A drone headed straight for him, but he revved up the Lancer and cut through its body, ignoring its cries of pain.

"You'll have to backtrack just a bit, but you still should be able to make it to the evac point. I'll guide you through," came her voice again.

"What would I do without you?" Marcus said, and he meant every word. He took out another drone by smashing the Lancer into its skull.

"I'm sure you'll tell me later," Anya said hastily. "For now, just head east when you can."

Baird and Cole finished off the rest of the swarm that tried to ambush them. They signaled for him and Dom to stay away from the hole while they tossed grenades down the deep tunnel to seal it. When a geyser of snow, dirt and rock rained down on them, Baird gave Cole a high five. They were like a couple of kids. "Copy that, thanks Anya," Marcus said. "Delta, on me!"

They headed east, just as instructed. Dom quickened his pace to stay by Marcus' side. "You wanna run that answer by me again?" he smirked.

"Shut up," Marcus said, continuing on the snowy path. He had a feeling that the conversation wasn't over.

AN: I just seem to be on a Marcus/Anya kick lately. I don't see much of it, I guess. Well, I hope you enjoyed that. I don't really foresee taking this any further, so I suppose I will leave it as a one shot. Thanks for reading!


End file.
